Telling the Story of Science: An Illustrated Conceptual Model

Dr. Anna Monfils came to me with a specific challenge: showcase the role of collaboration and publicly accessible biodiversity data in science and conservation. The material would need to be used in classrooms to introduce students to the process of science, as outreach material for potential collaborators, and to bring the ideas of adaptive management and open data to poweshiek skipperling conservation.

We agreed to create an illustrated conceptual model with overlapping illustrations to tell the story of research and conservation actions on the endangered poweshiek skipperling butterfly. The image can also be used as a sequence (see the black and white images below) to tell the story chronologically.

Anna gave me a set of educational tools, papers, and videos that she already liked. From there I developed the underpinning conceptual model. After a quick meeting to confirm that the underlying model captured what she wanted, I set to work illustrating the specific people, research, and institutions involved in a series of studies on poweshiek skipperling butterflies.

The resulting images have wowed students and researchers alike and wound up evolving into more projects, collaborations, and funding for Anna’s work.